Renual
by illumipel
Summary: Ventus watches his savior grow and remembers what it feels like to hope. BBS Spoiler Warning. Oneshot


**This fanfic contains spoilers for _Birth by Sleep_. You have been warned. **

AN: Kinda wondered how Ventus felt after BBS happened. Then I started thinking about how Sora just inspires this incredible feeling of hope when everything seems lost and... yeah. Thrown together in less than 3 hours so please forgive any bad grammar and other things. I'm not much of a writer.

__________

His refuge within the boy's heart is comforting and feels like a mix of nostalgia and home.

The gentle sensation does not smooth away the strange loss of hope he feels however.

He knows he should sleep, but his curiosity about the boy keeps him up. This child born at the same time as him is wonderful and he wants to know him.

Fresh scars are pushed down whenever he plays with the older, pale haired child, so like Terra it burns sometimes, but he keeps himself up reveling in the memories of training with their own wooden swords.

When she washes up on the shore that day, he practically screams at the boy to go to her, to protect her, to never leave her side because Ventus can feel Aqua all around this girl made of light (like he was; but no, not really) and he just _misses_ her so terribly.

He still can't bring himself to summon forth the hope of salvation and long lost days, but wishes to indulge in memories of happiness non-the-less.

The warm child doesn't actually hear him (he hasn't for a while now, and he's not sure what to think of that) but still does what Ventus had asked.

The silver haired child is drawn to her as well and unwanted pangs of jealousy seep out from his crook in the heart because he can see the momentary bliss that was once his life in the three of them. His host feels the echoes of this and twists it into his own.

Guilt over this seeps in as the boys race round and round trying to earn a smile from the princess for himself, and himself alone. The seeds of future pains are now sown, and knowing that he helped spur this feeling hurts. He whispers apologies as the boy sleeps one night and hides away deeper to finally sleep himself.

He is far from happy when he awakens.

The boy is much older now and he's first disturbed by his (since when was boy his?) child's face. A near perfect reflection of his own heart's darkness now stands there at the point of the boy's awakening. Ventus dismisses it quickly though, for the boy has been sheltering him for years and obviously there would have been some physical influences appearing over time.

No, it is the new voice speaking that angers the still shattered heart.

It is guiding him towards a very familiar path and what little of a heart he has left cracks when he realizes this.

It's not_ fair!_ he wants to scream (But then, when has it ever been?)

The next few days become a blur as the world turns into a whirl of confusion, loss, and pain. The best he can offer is subtle protection of his heart and carefully whispered clues hidden as instincts as the boy stumbles and gains more responsibility than he ever needed in exchange for everything he's ever known.

He wonders if his presence brought this fate down on the child and regrets his asking for sanctuary all those years ago.

Unbidden despair curls around him as he forces himself to stay awake and guide the new keyblade wielder when absolutely necessary so he (they) will not be lost. He is surprised to learn that this isn't too often. His boy is quite adaptive to his role and Ventus imagines that Master Eraqus would have loved him had things gone differently.

But history has a painful habit of repetition.

The older child is lost like Terra and he _cries_ at this, because he knows what comes next.

Except it doesn't. Not quite.

His boy doesn't break his heart, but it is lost to protect and restore, and darkness envelops him, them. Ventus fears the worst and is shown what is possibly the best as the young wielder finds the light and, though he is not quite whole, comes back.

And he saves them.

The princess, who now waits for him on that warm little island, is safe.

The boy with silver hair is free, lost, but himself once more.

The worlds that had been destroyed by Xehanort's mad dreams sparkle brightly in the sky.

And Ventus is smiling and laughing and crying so hard it hurts because he can barely remember the last time he's felt like this.

This child has given him back his hope.

The boy moves forward once more to fix the little left undone as he relaxes and remembers a nervous question and it's kind answer.

_Can I become part of your heart again?_

_If that makes your sadness go away._

_Yes_, he thinks as he fades back to sleep, _Yes Sora, it does._

_____


End file.
